Figurative language about learning to play an instrument...

Tropes about learning to play an instrument:

1. metaphor:

• "Learning to play an instrument is nourishment for the mind." 
• Playing an instrument provides no physical nutrients for the brain, the word nourishment here denotes something healthy that contributes to progress or enrichment.

2. paronomasia:

• "Learning to perform an instrument performs wonders for the idle mind." 
• The word "perform" is used twice, but with a different meaning each time. It might be humorous to think about how great of a performance it might be for one observing for the idle mind to be changed to something more complex and productive. 

3. anthimeria:

• "A key step to learning how to play an instrument is a good daily practice." 
• Practice is a verb not a noun, but is used in the previous sentence as a noun. By turning practice into a verb it seems like it emphasizes the action of practicing more and makes it seem more involved or intense. 

4. hyperbole:

• "Learning to play an instrument is no mere hobby; it is the difference between a life lived to its' fullest and being consigned to decades of mediocrity. "
• Suggesting that playing an instrument is what provides for a fulfilling life and not doing so will lead to unhappiness is an exaggeration. Most people can't really tell the difference between someone who plays an instrument ad someone who doesn't. 

5. oxymoron:

• "The simple complexity of time, rhythm, and movement form the sum of musicality."
• Simple and complexity placed right by each other is paradoxical.

Schemes about learning to play an instrument:

1. parallelism:

• "Memorizing songs to play, poems to recite, or words to use are all expansive to the human mind." 
• "...songs to play... poems to recite... words to use..." are the parallel phrases here. 

2. anastrophe:

• "Rapidly moving were her eyes and hands as she played the notes that passed by quickly on the music before her." 
• Placing the adjective and verb "rapidly moving" before rather than after "her eyes and hands" places more emphasis on the intensity of her movement and the action of movement itself. It causes the phrase to be more active. 

3. ellipsis:

• Actors memorize pretty quickly; the musician, even quicker. 
• The word "memorize" was omitted in the second part of the sentence because it is still implied. 

4. alliteration:

• "When learning an instrument the brain may breach barriers that are broken by the balance of musicality and technicality." 
• B's were repeated throughout the middle of the sentence, it provides greater emphasis on the brain and the words that follow.